# 



^/i/ 6- ? 



/, 



// 



IF 259 
M69 
Jopy 1 



AN ADDRESS delivered before the American 
Dairymen's Association, at Utica, N. Y., on 
Wednesday, January 10th, 1872, by X. a'WIL- 
LARD, A. M., of Herkimer County, New York, 
Lecturer at Cornell University, and at the Maine 
State Agricultural College. 



CONDENSED MILK MANUFACTURE. 



\i 



^^^.'1 

,\\^'^ 



AN ADDRESS 

OLIVERED BEFORE THE AMERICAN DAIRYMEn's ASSOCIATION, AT 

UTICA, N. Y., ON 

WEDNESDAY, JANUAEY IOtii, 1872, /^ 

X. X. \yiLLARD, A. M., 

Of HerMmer County^ New YorV, 

ECTDRER AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY AND AT THE MAINE STATE AGRI- 
CULTURAL COLLEGE. 

CONDENSED MILK MANUFACTURE. 



ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF MILK CONDENSING IN AMERICA. 

The history of experiments for condensing milk in America 
dates back to 1846. Possibly the idea of reducing milk to a solid 
may have occurred earlier in Europe, but if experiments were made 
in that direction they obtained no success, or at least were of no 
practical importance. For many .years preparations under the 
name of" Dessicated Milk," " Milk Powders," and "Milk Essence," 
have been put upon the market, but they weue too imperfect to 
meet the conditions required for general introduction. They were 
articles prepared from milk, and not the actual milk. 

It became evident at an early day that if milk could be 

' Copyright reserved to the author. 



56 

eliminated siiui)Jj of its water, leaving the other constituents uiiiui- 
paired, unaltered— in other words, if milk could be converted into a 
solid, so as to be easily kept for long periods, and then by the addition 
of water could be brought back again to its original consistency and 
flavor, such form of milk would prove a boon to consumers, and 
must find a ready sale if put upon the market at reasonable prices. 
To Mr. Gail Borden, of White Plains, New York, must be awarded 
the credit of essentially accomplishing these results. It is true 
his milk is not reduced to a solid or dry state, but three quarters of 
its bulk in water have been eliminated, while the other conditions 
are very perfectly met, and in the present form it is better adapted 
to the manifold uses and wants of consumers than if it were in a 
dry state. The history of Mr. Borden's labors and ultimate success 
has been well portrayed by a writer in the Milk Journal, from 
which I quote, correcting the errors and giving dates as related to 
me by Mr. Borden. 

It is affirmed that " all the brands of good, or even fair quality 
now sold, are prepared substantially under the system originated by 
him (Borden.) As long ago as 1S49 he began his experiments, 
simultaneously with others whose aim was the preservation of 
meat. It may be mentioned here that in the London Exhibition of 
1851 the Council Bronze Medal was awarded to Mr. Sorden for his 
meat biscuit. He did not at this time exhibit his condensed milk. 
It was not until about 1853 that he himself arrived at the con- 
viction that he had obtained the quality he had been seeking. 
Meanwhile he had expended energy, time, and quite a fortune in 
his experiments, for he at length saw that to experiment to ad- 
vantage, a large amount of material, involving much expense, must 
be used in each instance. 

At an early stage of his experiments he decided that milk could 
not be preserved in a dry form as " dessicated," or '' powdered," or 
"solidified," but must be left in?, semi-liquid state. That some 
preservative agent must be added, and that nothing but water must 
be eliminated also became apparent. 

The result is that condensed milk, as known to the trade and 
consumers, consists of milk from which only water has been taken, 
and to which nothing but sugar has been added, the product 
being of the consistency of honey, and by a dilution in water re- 
convertible to milk itself, somewhat sweetened. It may be stated 
in this connection that all the dry preserved milks require to be 



57 

dissolved in hot water while the condensed milk, prepared under 
the Borden system, readily dissolves in cold water. 

By 1861 Mr. Borden had quite extensively introduced his article, 
and four or live factories were in operation, capable of producing in 
the aggregate, five thousand cans, of one pound each, per day. 

During the war of the Rebellion large quantities were required 
for the Nortliern armies, the officers and many privates purchasing 
it of the sutlers, while the hospitals were supplied by the Govern- 
ment and the various Christian and Aid Societies, This gave an 
impetus to the trade, at the same time that shipping demand 
steadily increased. 

About 1857 Mr. Borden put upon the market for city use, what 
he calls Plain Condensed Milk. This is prepared in the same 
way as the other, except that no sugar is added, and it is not 
hermetically sealed. It will remain sound from one to two weeks 
according to the temperature in w^hich it is kept, and it is so 
convenient as well as economical that it is stated that now a large 
quantity of the milk used in New York City is of this kind. 

With the end of the war and the dissolution of the armies the 
demand for sugared condensed milk fell off and the manufacturers 
who had been stimulated to too great a production turned their 
attention lo this Plain Condensed Milk^ 

We have no means of estimating the present extent of the 
manufacture of condensed milk in the United States. For this we 
must wait for the returns of the census of 1870. However, we 
know that the capacity of the factories on the Hudson, in Connecti- 
cut, Pennsylvania and Illinois, is not less than five hundred cases of 
four dozen one pound cans per day, equal to eight million, five 
hundred thousand pounds per annum. It may be stated that one 
pound of the condensed milk is equivalent to three or four pounds of 
crude milk. 

In 1805 an American gentleman who had noted the advantages 
of the article in the American army during the four years of the war, 
became resident in Switzerland in the capacity of U. S. Consul. 
Remembering the cheapness and richness of Swiss milk, the cheap- 
ness of labor and other facilities afforded in that countr}^, he con- 
ceived the idea of preparing condensed milk in Switzerland. 

He communicated his views to a gentleman late of the U. S. 
Patent Office^ who visited several factories in America, producing 

H 



58 

the condensed milk under tlie Borden patent, where he learned the 
art of manufacturing the milk under the Borden process, and com- 
menced manufacturing the same in Switzerland. The Swiss con- 
densed milk has always been made under this process, and from 
wliat I can learn, the manner of obtainino; information relating to 
the i)roce3s was not such as Mr. Borden approved. 

The ultimate success of this project has abundantly proved the 
soundness ot this Consul's conception. lie promoted the Anglo- 
Swiss Condensed Milh Co., the extent of whose present business is 
set forth in the following extract from the "Grocer" of Dec. 31, 
IS TO. The facts seem to have been compiled from statistics pro- 
cured at the Board of Trade, which were doubtless obtained from 
the Report of the British Legation at Berne : 

"In the Canton of Zug there has of late grown up a new mode of 
preserving milk, which, owing to the good pasturage of that locality, 
is very excellent in quality. In the Commune of Cham the Anglo- 
Swiss Condensed Milk Co., with a capital of $60,000, employ about 
sixty operatives in their factory, the tall chimney of which may be 
seen by the railway traveler passing over the line from Lucerne to 
Zurich. The number of^ows hired for the year is 1,440, and the 
average amount of condensed milk prepared daily during three hun- 
dred and sixty-five days of the year — as it is necessary to include the 
Sundaj'S — is one hundred and ten cases of four dozen each of one 
pound cans ; these equal one million nine hundred and twenty-seven 
thousand two hundred cans, as the product of the year. 

The price of crude milk is about two cents (Id) per quart, and the 
daily cost of the cans made at this establishment amounts to ,£16 10s 
or a trifle over l^c. for each can. 

About one-half of the produce is sent direct to London, where one- 
half of this is consumed, while the remainder goes for ship-stores, 
is exported to the colonies and sent to the provincial towns of Eng- 
land. The half of the product not sent to London is distributed 
over Germany, and there is some demand from France and Russia. 
It should be remembered that this Company w^s the first in Europe 
to introduce condensed milk to family use. Until its advent the 
article was known only for ship-stores and colonial consumption. 
By extension and systematic advertising, and througL the boundless 
energy which characterizes your business Yankee, this Company 
has received a large demand for ordinary family consumption, not 



59 

only in England, but also in Germany and Russia. In this respect 
its success may be largely attributed to the fact that Baron Liebeg 
and other authorities on questions of food, su^^ported it heartily from 
the first, and allowed the patronage of their names for publication. 
Its success led naturally enough to the springing up of competition 
companies. 

These have been established at Gruyeres and half a dozen other 
places in Switzerland, in Bavaria, in Holstein, in Ireland and in 
England, But failing to produce a standard (piality, and wanting 
in 2)t"<isi'ige, they have nearly all ceased to manufacture. 

All now known to the London trade are the "Anglo-Swiss," Mr. 
Newman's "Irish Condensed Milk," at Mallow, near Cork, and the 
"English Condensed Milk Co.," whose works are at Aylesburj^ 
Buckinghamshire. The two last put their milk in the market during 
the year 1870, and it is stated upon good authority that neither the 
Swiss nor the English Company has lately been able to supply the 
call for their products." 

PRE-BEQUISITES. 

I have now given some general features in tlie history of con- 
densed milk manufacture, and before entering upon details of fac- 
tories and the process of manufacture, the essential requisites for 
success may be discussed. In Mr. Borden's eaily experiments, and 
indeed up to within a few years past, the nature and cause of a pe- 
culiarly bad behavior in milk from time to time were imperfectly 
understood. Under certain circumstances and conditions the milk 
could be readily handled, and gave no trouble in its manipulation. 
When in this state comparatively inexperienced operators, men 
who simply followed a set of rules, with little or no knowledge of 
principles, were enabled to turn out a good j^roduct, whether it was 
butter or cheese. Sometimes these conditions would continue for 
days, for weeks, or for months; but there was no reliability of its 
continuing for any specitied time, or indeed in difierent localities 
during tlie same time. The milk might be easily worked one daj-, 
and the next would refuse to be controlled under ordinary treat- 
ment. The fault was at first supposed to originate in some want 
of cleanliness either at the factory, or among those who produced 
and delivered the milk. This was a part but not the whole trouble. 

The importance of cleanliness, and what seemed to many to be 
"an absurd, fastidious neatness," became apparent to Mr. Borden at 



GO 

an early stage of his investigations. He therefore instituted a set 
of rules for the government of dairymen in the care and maiicige- 
ment of milk ; and as he bought only such milk as would pass the 
closest scrutiny of an expert, he was able after a time to enforce an 
observance of his printed regulations among dairymen. I shall 
presently refer to these rules and give them in detail, because they 
strike home to some of the leading principles for obtaining good 
milk, and they are such as should be a guide to dairymen generall3^ 

He adopted also the practice of cleaning and steaming at the 
factory his patrons' delivery milk cans, because he feared, and with 
good reason, too, that this work might not be properly done at the 
farm. But when farmers had become educated, and all his condi- 
tions of cleanliness had been observed and carried out to the letter, 
milk not unfrequently came to his factories, which, though aj)- 
parently perfect, or at least so perfect as to pass the rigid scrutiny 
of his experts, was in a condition that rendered it impossii)le to be 
converted into a good product. 

The reason for this was not of easy solution, and it has been the 
cause cf heavy losses and the closing up of factoiies altogether- 
factories not under Mr. Porden's immediate supervision. 

It may be observed here that good condensed milk is more reli- 
ably clean and healthy than most milk that goes to city consumers. 
Dirty milk, milk foul with the drippings of the stable, cannot l)e 
condensed into a clean-flavored product. The success of the con- 
densing factory depends entirely upon the ability to put a fine 
flavored, perfect article upon the market. The milk must be uni- 
formly good. An inferior condensed milk Is more readily detected 
than an inferior article of cheese. A.t least, imperfections in -cheese 
may be tolerated and the article may find a place in the market, but 
a factory sending out imperfect or badly flavored milk, must soon 
cease to be remunerative, and must inevitably close its doors. To 
attain any success in this business there is an absolute necessity for 
clean, healthy milk in the first instance, and when a knowledge of 
this fact becomes familiar among consumers, condensed milk, must 
take the place of the vile fluid under the name of milk, which is 
now hawked about in all our leading towns and cities. 

And it may be w^ell to warn those who propose to enter upon con- 
densed milk manufacture, that more than ordinary difficulties lie 
before them. In the first place arrangements must be perfected for 
obtaining good clean healthy milk and this imposes a soi't of edu- 



61 

cation upon those producing milk of the greatest importance, and 
and wliich, at least in the United States, does not generally obtain. 
This may be properly discussed under the head of the 

FUNGI THEORY. 

I have said that farmers need to be educated in the production 
of milk, to be so well grounded in a knowledge of facts and prin- 
ciples that a high moral responsibility shall obtain. 

I have no Utopian theories for regenerating the world, and I have 
no hope but there will always be more or less bad men, even among 
dairymen, but 1 have faith to believe that most farmers when they 
know a thing to be morally wrong — when they are convinced that 
right pays best, will generally choose the latter. I assume that no 
fair minded man will go deliberately to work administering poison 
to his domestic animals to make their meat bad and unwholesome, 
when there is no reason to hope that such meat will sell in market 
for an}' more than sound meat, while there is probability that it must 
sell for less, or be a total loss, while at the same time there is the 
fear of detection and of beinij; held in the estimation of his neis-h- 
bors and community as a knave and a cheat. 

Why then should farmers who have the means at hand tor mak- 
ing good milk pei'sistin making that which is bad raid unwholesome, 
if it be not from a lack of knowledge in regard to principles ? It is 
not sutiicient to be told, that he is making bad milk, the reasons must 
be giv^en plainly and the conviction firmly established in his mind as 
to tiie truth of the principles enunciated. Then with this knowledge 
and conviction before him l)y day and by night, his moral sense is 
brought into action, and permanent im])rovement may be expected. 

The investigations of Ilallier and Pasteur with the microscope 
have explained the nature of causes in operation to change milk 
from its normal condition, or render it filthy and unwholesome. 
They show that thi estate is brought about by living organisms — ■ 
that these pervade the atmosphere, and the germs absorbed in the 
milk from this source multiply and increase with wonderful rapidity, 
and take complete possession of the fiuid, changing it into theii- 
own nature. The germs from cesspools, from decomposing or pu- 
trid animal matter, when introduced in the milk, carry their own 
peculiar taint, and by their growth and multiplication soon con- 
vert tiie milk into a filthy putrifactTve state similar to that of the 
substance from which they emanated. 



62 

" The microcuceu!?, for instance,'" says Professor Caldwell, " ap- 
pear only in substances rich in nitrogen, but wlien it does api)ear, 
no matter from what fungus it may come, it causes putrifaction. 
The cryptococcus not only causes the particular kind of decompo- 
sition called alcoholic fermentation, but appears only in solutions 
that are fit for that kind of decomposition," and so on. 

The wonderful rapidity with which these fungi produce new cells, 
each one of which can act as a starting point for new and distinct 
growth, also increases their power of making their influence for 
good or evil to be felt everywhere. 

" ThePeiicilliuni Crustaccuin can run through its whole course in 
forty-eight hours at <-he most, at a temperature of SO"-^ to OC^' Fahr., 
and produce a new crop of several hundred spores tor each old one ; 
and in forty-eight hours more, each spore of this crop of several 
hundred will produce several hundred more, and so on. At such a 
rate of multiplication it would take but a few days to reach num- 
bers too great for an adequate conception. 

And what is more, this is not the only way, nor even the most 
rapid way, in which the Pencillium can propogate itself. A Pen- 
cillium spore will, in the course of an hour, at a moderately eleva- 
ted temperature, produce from 20 to 100 micrococcus cells ; each 
one of these cells will sub-divide into two in another hour, and so 
on. At this rate of increase, we should have, at a low estimate of 
fifty cells from one spore to start with, four hundred million micrococ- 
cus cells from this one spore in twenty- four hours.'" 

Again he says, " From the moment the milk leaves the cow, the 
work of tlie fungi commences. They begin to increase, and simul- 
taneously the milk begins to change, both operations going on with 
a rapidity that varies according to the circumstances of the tempera- 
ture and exposure, and never ceasing entirely till the milk or its 
products are digested in the stomach, or have putrified and decayed 
in the air, producing results that vary according to the product, 
whether butter or cheese, or simply the milk itself, and what is very 
important and more pertinent to my subject, according to the kind 
of fungus that gets a foothold in the substance. The elements of 
fungi that are already in pure clean milk, to begin with or that are 
added in the rennet, (when cheese is to be made,) appear to do no 
harm, but on the contrary, by their legitimate growth and action 
on the substance in the midst of which they find themselves, to 



63 

bear at least an important part in the elaboration of the very prin- 
ciples which give the final product i s savor and its value. 

" But the case is quite dificrent in the case of such fungi as are 
introduced from without, and which originate in indrid matter of 
any kind ; their whole influence is harmful in a high degree, and so 
readily can these minute germs make their way anywhere and 
everywhere, that if the air containing them in unusual quantity is 
inhaled hy the coios, their milk will he infected hefore it leaves the 
hacjy 

We find this consistent with numerous well authenticated fiicts. 
Milk from cows inhaling bad odors has been found to be tainted and 
incapable of being made into good cheese. The fact was first brought 
to notice by Mr, Foster, of Oneida, whose herd of cows inhaling the 
emanations trom the decaying remains of a dead horse caused their 
milk to be unfit for making cheese ; and n jt only the milk from the 
cows inhaling the odor, but that from a large number of other cows, 
when mingled together in the cheese factory vats. All the circum- 
stances and facts concerning the case were so carefully noticed and 
investigated that it left no doubt as to the cause of the tainting of 
the milk. 

Repeated observations by members of the American Dairymen's 
Association establish this principle beyond peradventure. 

Again, I have seen numerous cases where the milk was tainted 
from cows having passed through sloughs of decomposing vegetable 
matter. Particles of dirt adhere to the udder, or other parts of the 
animal, and becoming dry some of the dust perchance falls into the 
milk during the milking, thus introducing germs which make rapid 
work in decomposing and putrifying good healthy milk. A most 
notable example of this came under my observation while on a visit 
to the cheese factory of Mr. L. B. Arnold of Tompkins County, in 
1870. When the milk was received at the factory there was no 
reason to suspect taint from any particular dairy. The delivery from 
the several patrons went into the vat together, and was set in the 
usual manner with rennet. But during the process of heating up 
the curds a most intensely foul and disagreeable odor was emitted. 
The cheese maker sent for Mr, Arnold and myself and we went down 
to the factory together. We found the curds then about half scalded 
and were giving ofl" a stench exceedingly ofiensive, — a smell like that 
coming from a nasty mud hole stirred up and exposed to the air in 
hot weather. 



64 

There was no inistakin<^ the ]>eciiliar odor, and I suggested at 
once that some of the patrons were allowing their cows to slake 
their thirst from stagnant, filthy pools. He afterwards traced the 
milk to its sonice, and fourd the tronble to come from one patron, 
who allowing the cows to cross a narrow slough, when ])ar- 
ticles of mud adhering to the ndder and becoming dry, tlie dnst 
entered the milk during milking, had introduced a class of fungi, 
which by their multiplication had spoiled the milk. 

The patron had meant no harm. lie had taken every precaution 
so far as his knowledge extended for the delivery of good milk, and 
on correcting this fault the trouble ceased. 

Another case is in point and which occui'red during the past sum- 
mer, 1871. 

Professor Law, of Cornell University, gets his supply of milk 
from a "milk man." One day, during the hot weather, he ob- 
served a peculiar ropy appearance in the cream which had risen on 
the milk. He examined it nnder a powerful microscope and found 
it filled with living organisms of a character quite foreign to good 
milk, lie immediatel}' called upon his milk-man to enquire con- 
cerning his management of stock and general treatment of milk, 
with a view of accounting for the trouble. There was no fault dis- 
covered at the dairy-house or in the milking or general treatment 
of the milk, but on looking through the pastures he found that the 
cows, for lack of clean running water, were compelled to slake their 
thirst for the most part from a stagnant pool. This water he ex- 
amined under the microscope, and discovered the same class of 
organisms as those in the cream. He then took some of the blood 
from the cows, and examined it under the glass, when the same or- 
ganisms made their appearance. 

He next obtained a specimen of good milk — milk which on ex- 
amination was free from animalcnl?e — and into this he put a drop 
of water from the stagnant pool. In a short space of time the milk 
developed en infinite number of these living organisms, and became 
similar in character to the milk obtained from his milk-man. 

He examined the cows and made the usual thermometer tests for 
determining health and disease in animals. The cows were found 
to be hot and feverish, thus evidently showing that the organisms, 
entering the circulation, had affected the health of the animals. 

I have called attention to these facts because it has been very 



65 

commonly supposed among milk producers that so long as a due 
degree of cleanliness in respect to dairy utensils has been observed, 
the responsibility of bad milk can be shifted upon other parties. 

I have said that it is important that the milk producer who de- 
livers milk to the condensed milk factory be thoroughly educated 
in all the leading causes which injure milk, — that he have a moral 
sense of the dishonesty and wrong he would be doing in delivering 
milk which he has good reason to believe would spoil the whole pro- 
duct of the factory for the day. 

No system of inspecting the milk as it comes to the factory will 
reach all the causes affecting milk or determine imperfections often 
contained in it at the time of delivery. 

The milk of cows in heat, of cows over-exercised on account of 
tliis disturbance, cannot be used with safety. Yet when such milk 
comes to the factory mingled with the other milk of the herd, it will 
be very likely to pass the scrutiny of the expert and be accepted. 

Under the best management and most careful examination, losses 
will inevitably occur from time to time on account of imperfect 
milk, and a certain per centage must be allowed in making up an 
estimate of expenses to cover this item. But unless there be some 
reliability for obtaining good, clean, healthy milk it would not be ad- 
visable to enter upon condensed milk manufacture. To this end the 
character of the country where the milk is produced should be 
studied. The pastures should be upon high undulating or well drained 
soils. The farms should have an abundance of clear, sweet, running 
water while extra attention must be given to the care and manage- 
ment of herds, never over-driving in hot weather, milking with regu- 
larity and with fastidious neatness, together with absolute cleanli- 
ness in dairy utensils and dairy buildings. 

I am told that Mr. Borden's success has resulted in a great meas- 
ure in locating his factories in the most favorable districts for ob- 
taining good milk, and in every instance he selected for milk pro- 
ducers persons whose long experience in furnishing milk for city 
consumption had taught a higher appreciation in the care of milk 
than is common among the cheese dairymen. 

Upon this element he commenced and inaugurated a set of rules 
for guidance in the delivery of milb, a faithful performance of which 
was rigidly exacted. 
I 



66 

Tliese rules are as follows : 

I. The milk shall be drawn from the cow in the most cleanly 
manner and strained through wire-cloth strainers. 

II. The milk must be thoroughly cooled, immediately after it is 
drawn from the cow, by placing the can in which it is contained in 
a tub or vat of cold water deep enough to come up to the height ot 
the milk in the can, containing at least three times as much water 
as there is milk to be cooled ; the milk to be occasionally stirred 
until the animal heat is expelled, as below, 

III. In summer or in spring or fall, when the weather is warm, 
the bath shall be spring water, not over 52"^ temperature, (a day or 
night after a heavy rain excepted,) constantly running or pouring 
in at bottom, necessary to reduce the temperature of the milk with- 
in forty-five minutes to below 58*^ ; and it night's milk, to remain 
in such bath until the time of bringing it to the factory, to below 
55*^. The morning's milk not to exceed 60*^ when brought to the 
factory. 

TV. In winter or in freezing weather, the bath shall be kept at 
the coolest point (it need not be running spring water) by the ad- 
dition of ice or snow sufficient to reduce the temperature of the 
nights' milk speedil}' below SO'^. 

V. In spring and fall weather a medium course will be pursued, 
so that nights' milk shall be cooled within an hour below 50*^, and 
mornings' milk below 55*^. 

VI. The bath and supply of water shall be so arranged as to let 
tiie water flow over the top to carry off the supply of warm water. 
The can in which the milk is cooled shall be placed in the water 
immediately after the milking, and shall remain therein until the 
process of cooling shall be finished. 

YII. The nights' and mornings' milk shall be separately cooled 
before mixing. 

YIII. No milk shall be kept over to deliver at a subsequent 
time. 

IX. The milk shall be delivered on the platform at the factory in 
Elgin every day except Sunday. 

X. Suitable cans of proper dimensions to transport the milk from 
the dairy to the milk works, shall be furnished by the seller, and 
the cans must be brought full. 

XI. The Company shall clean and steam the cans at the factory, 
free of charge, but customers shall keep tlic outside clean. The 



67 

pails and strainers employed shall be by the seller thoroughly 
cleaned, scalded in boiling water and dried morning and night. 

XII. Immediately before the milk is placed in the cans they shall 
be thoroughly rinsed with clean cold water, and great care shall be 
taken to keep the cans and milk free from dirt and impurities of 
any kind. AYhen the cans are not in use they shall be turned down 
on a rack with the tops off. 

XIII. All the " strippings," as well as the first part of the milk, 
shall be brought. IS"© milk will be received from a cow which has 
not calved at least twelve days, unless by consent of Superintendent 
or Agent, who may determine its fitness sooner by a sample of the 
milk. 

XIY. The cows are not to be fed on turnips or other food which 
would impart a disagreeable flavor to the milk, nor upon any food 
which will not produce milk of standard richness. 

XY. It is further understood and agreed by the parties hereto, 
that if the Superintendent or Agent of the Company shall have 
good reason to suspect, either from evidence furnished or from the 
state of the milk itself, that water has been added, or that it has 
not been cooled as provided, or that it has been injured by careless- 
ness, he shall have a right to refuse to receive such milk or any other 
further quantity of milk from the person so violating these direc- 
rections and stipnlations. 

EXPELLING THE WATER BY MEANS OF FANS. 

Mr. Borden's plan for condensing milk is to eliminate the Avater 
" in vacuo," a description of which will be given further on. This 
plan involves the employment of machinery somewhat expensive 
and complicated, and efforts have been made from time to time to 
accomplish the object by more simple methods and at less cost. 
Among the most successful methods brought to my notice was that 
adopted by Provost, of Orange County, Xew York. 

During the year 1SG5 I visited this factory and made drawings of 
its ground plan. 

The process of evaporation was different from that of J>orden, and 
was claimed to bo less expensive, and to be effected with less heat. 

In this plan the engine and boiler room is lower than the floor of 
the evaporating room, and the steam pipes leading to the heating 
vat and condensing pan are carried along in the basement under 
the evaporating room. Above the evaporating pan is a chimney- 



68 

like ventilator, extending above the building, in which are placed 
the revolving fans, driven by power supplied by the engine. 

THE PROCESS FOR CONDENSING. 

The leading features in the treatment of the milk are briefly as 
follows : The milk, as it comes to the factory, is carefully examined, 
and if all right it is received and weighed. The cans are then 
placed upon the car, which runs on rails to the cooling vat. Here 
the milk is drawn into long tin pails 8 inches in diameter and 18 
inches long, holding 20 quarts each. About IS quarts are put in 
each pail, when it is placed in the vat containing cold spring water. 
After the milk has been cooled to 60'^, the pails are immediately 
plunged info the w^ater of the heating vat, which has a temperature 
of 185*^ to 190'^ Fahr. The best refined white sugar is now added 
at the rate of four pounds for each pail. It is kept in the vat of 
heated water about 30 minutes, when it is poured into the large 
condensing pan. This pan has fifty corrugations, and sets over 
water and upon a furnace in an adjoining room. Directly above 
the pan are arranged the the two large pans previously alluded to, 
and which are kept in motion by machinery. The temperature of 
the milk while evaporation is going on is uniform at KiO''' Fahr. 

The fans carry off the water, forcing it through ventilators out 
of the building as fast as it is formed into vapor. Under this pro- 
cess it takes about seven hours to condense the milk, seventy-five 
per cent, of its bulk in water being driven off". The faucets at 
each end of the pan are then opened, and the condensed fluid passes 
through fine wire strainers, or selves, into large cans. These cans, 
when filled, are rolled away to the tables at the back side of the 
room, where their contents are drawn off into small tin cans hold- 
ing one pound each, and are then immediately sealed up to exclude 
the air. 

The condensed milk has the consistency of thick syrups ; it has 
a rich, creamy taste, rather sweet, with a flavor of boiled milk, but 
by no means unpleasant. Dr. Crane informed me that milk thus 
prepared had been preserved in good order for years, and he opened 
cans in my presence containing milk a year old, and it was ap- 
parently sound and of good flavor. 

For shipping, this establishment packed its cans in barrels, with 
sawdust between the packages, a form which ensured their safe ar- 
rival in market. During the war these pound packages were sold 
at the rate of 40 cents each, and the lu-ice paid for crude milk at 



69 

the factory during suiniiier was about live cents per (juart, but in 
winter the price ranged from seven to seven and one-half cents per 
quart. 

At this factory, HI\e those under the Borden process, two kinds 
of condensed milk were manufactured : that which has been de- 
scribed and the plain condensed milk, in which no sugar is added 
in the manufacture. 

This factory is not now in operation. Whether this plan can be 
made successful in furnishing a uniform product equaFto that under 
the Borden method, is a question upon which I have not sufficient 
information to give an opinion,. 

COST OF FITTING UP A FAOTORV ON THE BOKDEN METHOD, 

It is charged as a prominent characteristic of Americans that 
among the first questions they ask concerning any particular object, 
is its cost. Perhaps this may not always be in good taste, but 
among practical men who are investigating a business with the view 
of investing capital and taking risks, it is always well to look ex- 
penses fair in the face. 

The building is 16 x .50 feet, with veranda, or shed, 4 feet wide, 
on two sides. The ground floor is divided into four departments ; 
the first to the risrht is the can-washing room, 16x16 feet, contain- 
ing the hot water washing tank, with coil of steam pipe ; the hot 
water sink and scalding jacket, the cold water sink and platform for 
cleaning can. The steam pipe leads from the boiler to this room. 

The next is the receiving, condensing, and delivery room, 16x16 
feet. It contains the receiving and cooling tanks, the heating vat 
and the vacuum p? n. Then comes the engine room, 7 x 16 feet, 
containing duplex engine and pump, with steam pipes leading to 
the other rooms. The rooms to the left are the coal shed and boiler 
room, 9x11 feet, where is situated the boiler (60 horse power) and 
the boiler pump. 

Communication is easy from one department to the other by wide 
doors, and the whole is arranged for convenience in doing the nec- 
essary work. The cost of an establishment is put by Prof. Chaceof 
Cornell University, who obtained the estimates for ])arties propos- 
ing to build, as follows : — • 

Erection of the building, IGxoOfeet ready for niaehinery, ite., tkc. . . .$ 3,500 

Vacuum Pan and Condenser, from 4 to (J feet in diameter 1.800 

One Duplex 14 inch Pump and Engine 1.500 



70 

Pipiii>i ami tilting out l.aOO 

One boiler, (00 horse i)o\ver,) and tilting up IlOOO 

One Pump for Boiler 100 

Outside water pipes. not estimated 

Water pipes, &c 500 

One Cooling tank for receiving and stoi'age 500 

One Heating tank and pipes for milk IJOO 

Hot water tank and steam pipes for washing cans, and two rinsing sinks (500 
One steam hath for scalding cans and i)ipes 150 



Making a total of 13.450 

The daily running expenses of this establishment may be estimated 
as follows : — 

5000 gallons crude milk, say at 12 i cents per gallon | 025.00 

One superintendent per day 5.00 

Two men at $2 per day 4.00 

One engineer per day » 2.00 

One-half ton Coal per day 3.00 

Wear and tear per day 2.00 

Taxes and Insurance per day .50 

Interest on Capital o.OO 

Incidental expenses, say 5.00 

*Total daily expenses (;4l).50 

To this may be added value of crude milk, say 200 gallons, as an 
offset against waste, occasional bad milk, &c. 

Taking out the 200 gallons crude milk per day as waste, we have 
remaining 4,800 gallons milk which is condensed at a total cost, 
(counting the original value of the 5000 gallons,) at the. rate of only 
a fraction above 13^c. per gallon, or say Ic. per gallon more than 
the original cost of the milk. This would be at the rate of ^c. per 
quart for condensing. ( )n 2080 gallons, 80 gallons being allowed as 
daily waste, the cost of condensing, with the same expenses as be- 
fore, would be nearly one and three-quarter cents per gallon or 
less than half a cent per <piart. This it must be understood is for 
■plain milk. When sugar is added the expense of the sugar must be 
added, but as sugared milk is sold by the pound, and as the addition 
of sugar adds to the weight, the increased weight more than pays 
the cost of the sugar. 

In a well conducted factory, and where milk can be purchased at 
12 1-2 cents per gallon, (3 l-8c. per quart,) the cost of condensing 



*NoTE.— On subiiiittin.s flic futures for cost of Condeiisiiiff Milk. &r.. to Mv. Gail Rordi-n, lie states tlio 
estimates above iirt! put ;>lii>;:rllu'r too low. To condense SUdO gallons ot milk lie says -would iei|Uii-e a 
larger capacity— of vacuum pans and mncli more labor tliau we have esli-.nated. Tliat no cjue may be 
misled by low'cstimates, we :iiay add, say twelve more men al if!1.."i() jier day and daily e\|ienses tor coal 
and larger vacuum pans. J6.00, "making ,^24.00, This sum subtracted from net da^ly prolits, as given, I 
tliii k must more than cover the case in point. 



71 

is from a qaarter to a half cent, per quart, and this includes the 
value of a certain number of gallons of crude milk, daily set apart 
to cover waste which possibly may not occur. 

When the milk is put up in pound cans, the 5000 gallons of milk 
condensed, allowing for waste as previously estimated," would re- 
quire ten thousand and forty tin cans, which at $80 per thousand, 
the estimated cost, would amount to $300,00, or three cents for every 
two quarts of crude milk condensed. The whole expense then of 
condensing and canning the 5000 gallons would be at the rate ot 

o JD tt 

one and three-fourth cents per quart of crude milk ; for the 2000 gal- 
lons it would be two cents per quart. The daily expenses then may 
be summed up as follows : — 

Cost of 5000 gallons milk $625.00 

Daily running expenses of factory as previously estimated 24.50 

10.040 Cans :!00.00 

To this must be added e.xpenses of scaling up and labelling the 

cans, at say Ic. per can 100.00 

Making a total of 1,049.50 

The daily product of the factory would be ten thousand and forty 
pound cans of sugared, condensed milk, which at 29c. per can 
amounts to |2,911.60, leaving a balance of one thousand, eight 
hundred and sixty-two dollars and ten cents above expenses, for the 
day's operations. But the milk must now be marketed, and of this 
I shall treatjn another place. 

The delivery of 5000 gallons crude milk per day, would require 
the product, of sixteen hundred and sixty cows, allowing each to yield 
on an average, three gallons of milk per day. If we estimate for a 
smaller number of cows as within an easy reach of most factories in 
the dairy districts, the 2080 gallons would represent say 660 cows. 
For this quantity the account would stand thus : — 

Cost of 2080 gallons of milk at 12ic. per gallon !^ 2(50.00 

Daily running expenses of factory as before estimated 24.50 

4,016 tin cans at 3c 120.00 

Filling, sealing and labeling cans, (Ic.) 40.00 

Making a total of 444.50 

The product would stand : — 

4,016 cans of sugared, condensed milk at 29c. per can $1,164.64 

Leaving a daily balance above exi)enses of 720.14 

Having presented this general survey of the business, we may 
now turn our attention to some of fhe details in regard to machi- 
nery and manufacturing, and the first that claims attention is 



72 



THE VACUUM PAN. 



In order to show how milk is condensed '' In vaeuo^^ it may be 
well perhaps to give an illustration of some of the modern improved 
machinery employed for this purpose. 

The drawing represents an improved cast iron vacuum pan. Dif- 
ferent liquids, as is well known, boil at different temperatures, and 
the same liquid may be made to boil at any temperature from the 
freezing point up, according as the pressure upon its surface is taken 
oii or increased. If by reason of boiling in conlined space the pres- 
sure upon the surface is increased so that steam cannot readily pass 
off, the heat accumulates to a greater degree than 212*^ till the steam 
acquires sufficient elasticity to overcome this increase of pressure. 
At the bottom of deep mines the increased pressure of the air has the 
same effect, and steam is not generated at so low a temperature as 
at the surface. As the pressure is diminished either mechanically 
by the use of the air pumps, or by ascending elevations, steam is 
generated and passes off more freely and at a lower temperature. 
On high mountains it may be difficult even to produce sufficient 
heat in open vessels to boil eggs. 

Darwin was led to notice this when he ascended with his sailors 
one of the mountains of Patagonia. They took with them a new 
pot, in which they attempted in vain to boil potatoes. But for the 
pressure of the atmosphere the ocean would boil and evaporate with 
heat equivalent to that of the sun's rays. Several ingenious experi- 
ments have been devised to illustrate these facts. - The simplest is 
in making a glass of warm water boil under the receiver of an air 
pump. The pulse glass, consists of two glass bulbs, connected by 
a glass tube. The fluid in one is made to boil by holding one of 
the bulbs in the warm hand. This property of being converted in- 
to vapor at difterent temperatures, is liiade to serve important pur- 
poses. 

Liquids intended to be evaporated are sometimes partially freed 
from the pressure of the air, and are thus boiled " in a vacuum" with 
economy of fuel. This process is adopted with great success in sugar 
refining. When the temperature of the usual boiling point would 
injuriously affect the liquid to be evaporated, as milk for instance, 
it is advantageously boiled with reduced pressure at a low tempera- 
ture. Syrups are evaporated as in the refining of sugar in vacuum 
pans, or vessels in which the atmospheric pressure may be partially 



T3 

taken off by air pumps, A low degree of heat only, is tans le- 
quired, producing economy in fuel and avoiding the risk of over- 
heating and burning the syrup. 

With these well known principles in mind, dairymen will be able 
to see the advantages obtained by Mr. Borden in using the vacuum 
pan in expelling the water from his milk. It will be observed too 
that from the moment the milk enters the pan it is protected from 
various harmful influences, such as dust, flies and other insects which 
are liable to be caught in the liquid wdien evaporation is carried on 
by an open exposure, like that under the Provost method. 

In Europe and indeed in the United States until quite recently, 
vacuum pans have been formed of copper, but owing to the high 
price of that metal, the temptation is to make them as thin as pos- 
sible, and the collapse of the pan, owing to the external atmospheric 
pressure, is not an unfrequent occurrence. In America the substi- 
tution of cast iron has in a great measure obviated this difficulty. 
I am told that the cast iron pans for condensing milk are employed 
with quite as much success as those made of copper, and the 
illustration is that of an iron pan, showing one of the best forms 
of construction in this material. The illustration shows three 
coils of pipe, but for condensing milk but one or two — the 
lower coils in the pan, — are used and the coils are arranged in a cir- 
cle around the pan instead of across as represented in the cut. 

I am indebted to the Technologist which furnishes me with the 
illustration and description of its parts. The drawing is so well ar- 
ranged to give a good idea of the manner in which solutions of su- 
gar and other organic substances may be evaporated at comparative- 
ly low temperature that I deem it important in this connection to a 
clear understanding of what I shall have to say in regard to con- 
densed milk manufacture. 

The pan A, is ten feet, six inches in diameter, and is cast in four 
pieces, Al being the bottom, A2 and A3 shells, and A4 the dome 
piece, B is the dome connected by the vapor pipe C, to the catcher 
D, — the latter being a cylindrical vessel, divided part way by a par- 
tition or apron Dl, against which, in case of boiling over, the liquor 
would be dashed and would gather in the bottom, where the amount 
can be seen at the glass gauge dl, and if necessary, emptied into the 
pan by means of the faucet and pipe d. From the top of the catch- 
er D, the vapors are conducted by pipe E to the condenser EI, which 
is placed 33 feet above the water level in the basin G, to which the 
J 



74 

• 

condenser is connected by the stand pipe F. The water rises in the 
latter to about 30 feet, more or less according to tlie atnount of vacu- 
um, and is held therein by atmospheric pressure on the surface of 
the water in basin G, the condensing water added liowinn; off from 
G, by overflow g. The water enters the condenser at E2, falls over 
the seive plates e, el, e2, and comes in direct contact with the 
vapors which have to pass also through the openings in the seive 
plates el, e2, by which arrangement the greatest condensation is 
produced with the least amount of water. 

At E3, the vacuum pump, in this case a dry one, is connected. To 
prevent the condensing water from being drawn along with the 
vapors to the pump, the opening E3 is guarded by an apron, PI is 
the pipe through which the liquor enters the pan. I is the dro}) 
valve composed of a rubber disk, i, between two ])lates on the end 
of lever i2, — a simple and most effective construction, tlie pressure 
of the outside air holding the valve perfectly tight; il is a semi- 
globular casing which prevents the liquor irom spreading too much 
when it is discharged. On the end of the valve stem is fastened a 
scraper J, intended to break any crust of crystalized sugar that may 
have formed, as any such crust unless removed would of course ob- 
struct the exit of the liquid. 

The regular mountings of the pan consists of a man-hole ; a ther- 
mometer L, the tube of which is enclosed in a pipel, and reaches to 
the centre of the boiling liquor ; a vacuum gauge M ; a glass gauge 
K, by which tlie quantity of liquor in the pan is ol)served ; a but- 
ter cup N, butter quieting the liquor if it shows a tendency to boil 
over; an eye glass O, opposite to which is another similar glass 
through which a lamp gives light to the inteiior of the pan. Q is a 
light glass on the top of the pan, through which the entire surface 
of the boiling liquor may be illuminated, and R is the tester by 
which proots are drawn to see how far the process has advanced. 

Heat is applied in the following manner: — The bottom of the pan is 
double, and steam is admitted thereto by the pipe P ; the upper 
shell which forms the heating surface being generally of copper. 
The steam also passes through one, two, three or even four coils, ac- 
cording to the size of the pan and the amount of water to be evap- 
orated in a specified time. P is the steam branch. The pipe S leads 
to the bottom, SI to the lowest coil, S2 to the middle coil, and S3 to 
the upper one. 



75 

As fast as the steam is condensed, the water is led by the pipes U 
IT from the bottom and coils to a steam trap. 

It might at first sight be supposed that cast iron would fail to re- 
sist the corroding action of solutions, but the results of practice show 
that the scale which in every case covers the metal, protects the pan 
completely ; and as the liquor is in all cases, charged to some extent 
with lime, the pan speedily becomes covered with a fine scale or fur, 
which effectiilly prevents all injurious action. This isespecially the 
ease if the pan be worked continually, but if long stoppages are 
made, copper possesses decided advantages over cast iron. 

Under ordinary circumstances, however, the cast-iron vacuum pan 
answers every purpose, and they can be constructed in such a per- 
fect manner that one similar to that described, will retain a vacuum 
of 20 inches for a space of 12 hours without losing more than one 
inch. 

PROCESS OF CONDENSING. 

In some of the recently erected factories an improvement has been 
made in heating tanks, cooling vats, and in the manner of locating 
these appliances, whereby the milk can be manipulated with more 
ease or be turned to other purposes besides condensing. The plans 
of factories previously given, are arranged for the condensing pro- 
cess alone. The new factories are more elaborate in their arrange- 
ments, and combine all the conveniences of the cheese and butter 
factories, as well as those for condensing milk. I shall presently 
describe one of these establishments, the best built of its kind in 
America and designed to be a model in all its internal machinery 
and appliances ; meanwhile the general features of the condensing 
process may be briefly stated. 

The milk is delivered morning and evening in small cans, hold- 
ing about -10 quarts each. They are filled quite full and have a tight- 
fitting cover. It is understood, of course, that the treatment of 
milk at the farm, shall have been in accordance with the rules pre- 
viously given. Then as the cans are placed upon the factory plat- 
form the covers are removed and each subjected to a rigid scrutiny 
by the factory manager, with a view to discover any imperfections. 
Imperfect milk can sometimes be detected immediately after remov- 
ing the can cover, from its odor, hut, if left for a few moments thus 
exposed to the atmosphere the odor escapes so that the milk, though 
imperfect, might pass undetected. The examination of the milk as 



76 

it comes to the factory, and the faculty of the manager in detecting 
its condition, will have much to do in securing an uniform good pro- 
duct and it is important that this matter be well understood. The 
examination should be ri<::id, and the manager should have Eufficient 
decision of character to reject every sample of milk which is not 
found to be in good order. After the milk is received it passes through 
a strainer to the receiving vat. From this it is conducted off, going 
throuo;h another strainer into the heatino- cans, each holdino- about 
20 gallons. These cans are set in hot water, and the milk is held here 
till it reaches a temperature of ISo'^ to 14:0'^. It then goes through 
another strainer into a large vat at the bottom of which is a coil of 
copper pipe, through which steam is conducted and here the milk is 
heated up to the boiling point. 

Then the best quality of white, granulated sugar, is added in the 
proportion of one and a quarter pounds of sugar to the gallon of 
milk, when it is drawn into the vacuum pan having a capacity of 
condensing three thousand quarts or more at a time. The milk re- 
mains in the vacuum pan, subjected to steam for about three hours, 
during which time about seventy-five per cent, of its bulk in water 
is eliminated, when it is drawn off into cans holding -iO quarts each. 
The cans are only partially filled, and are tlien set in a large vat 
containing cold water, the water being of a height equal to the 
milk in the cans. Here it is stirred until the temperature of the 
condensed fluid is reduced to a little below TO'". It is then turned 
into large drawing cans with faucets in order to facilitate the filling 
of the small cans. The drawing cans stand in a room set apart for 
the purpose, and around the outside of which runs a table or work 
bench. Here the milk is drawn from the faucets into the small tin 
cans holding one pound each, when they go to the table, and are im. 
mediately soldered to exclude the air. The cans next have the prop- 
er labels pasted upon them, and aie ready for market. The work of 
filling the cans, soldering the tops and labelling is usually performed 
by females. A number of small soldering furnaces are located along 
the tables where the girls, each with a set of soldering irons, seal the 
cans as fast as they are brought forward by the fillers. 

This is the plan of operations at the Elgin factory, which is some- 
what noted for its fine product. In one of the upper apartments 
of the Elgin factory is the tin room. Here a number of females are 
employed making the small tin cans. There are machines for cut- 
ting out the circular parts of the can at a blow and the putting to- 



77 

gether and soldering are very expeditionslv effected at the least ex- 
pense, since all the material is purchase-i at wholesale, and the em- 
ployment of females is less expensive than males, while at the 
same time the work is qnite as neatly and substantially made as at 
the regalar shops where males are employed. 

THE BC»KDEX FACTOKT AT BKEWSTER. 

In December, 1S71. 1 visited Mr. Borden at his home in White 
Plains, spending a conple of days with him and inspecting all the 
departments of his factory at Brewster. Mr. Borden is three score 
years and ten. tall, thin, a little stooping from age. and with locks as 
white as the snow. He has a pleasant, hazel eye. and the whole cast 
of his face is one of benevolence. He has a hearty, frank, agreea- 
ble manner, that is very attractive and pnts one at ease fix)m the first. 
He is a ready talker and hf s an immense fond of information and 
anecdote. He gives away large snms of money in charitr. and for 
worthy objects no one appeals in vain. Those who know him best 
spieak of him as the model pattern of a large hearted, kind and christian 
gentlemen. His int^rity is of the sternest kind, and he hates shams 
and deceptions. He has met with great success in the sale of his 
condensed milk and deservedly so, because he puts upon the market 
always a perfect article. The factory at Brewster is an immense es- 
tablishment and every p»art of the business is conducted with the 
regularity of clock-work. The building is located on a small stream 
where there is a seven foot fall and the water is thus utilized for 
running the p»umj:»s. which is a considerable saving during the year, 
by way of fuel. The factory has two vacuum pans, but only one was 
in operation at the time of my visit. It is a six foot pan with two 
coils of pipe, and 2«X»0 quarts of milk per hour, is the usual rate of 
condensing. Mr. Borden now believes in doing the work rapidly, 
and says the sc»oner you can get the milk from the cow into a con- 
densed form the better. He therefore uses two bc»ilers of 55 horse 
power each, for supplying steam to the pan. The average pressure 
of steam in the pipes, at the pan, is 55 to 60 pounds to the s^^nare 
inch. The evaporation goes on best in clear, dry weather. In damp. 
fc»ggy weather it takes a little longer to get the milk out. 

About IO.OCmI quarts are now being condensed per day. The milk 
as it is rec-eived. goes into s^^uare-like boxes or vats : the receiving 
room being four or five feet higher than the bath and heating room. 
The bath tults are cireular and have a cc»il of steam pipe at the 



YS 

bottom. The bntli tiil)S are filled within six or eight inches of 
the top, with water. The heating wells are of copper, egg-shaped 
and stand opposite the bath tubs, a raised platform running between 
the two. The milk is drawn throufjh a hose from the receivino- tanks 
into copper cans, setting in the bath tubs, each can holding about 
40 quarts. Here the milk is heated to from 150*^ to 175^^. It then 
goes to the heating wells, which have a jacketed bottom for steam, 
and is heated up to the boiling point. It is then immediately drawn 
to the vacuum pan, a stream of milk is kept flowing into the pan 
about as fast as the evaporation goes on, or at the rate of about 2000 
quarts per hour. When the sugared milk is to be made, the amount 
of sugar is calculated for the given quantity of milk, and then turned 
into a moveable tank or well, and here the hot milk is poured upon 
it till it is thoroughly dissolved. The hot sugared milk is drawn up 
last in the pan, and mingles with the milk which has been partially 
condensed in the pan. The sugared milk must be eliminated of 
more water than the plain milk, since the addition of sugar partially 
liquifies the mass — a curious fact. 

Three pints of milk makes a pound of sugared milk. The three 
pints of raw milk will weigh on an average 3 pounds, 3 and f ounces. 
Kow by eliminating 75 per cent of water, (38 520-1000 ounces,) we 
have remaining 12 ounces and 855-1000 of an ounce; add to this 
the proportion of sugar now used, 6 3 4 ounces, and we have 19 
605-1000 ounces, or about 3 and 6-10 ounces more than a pound. So 
it will be seen this 3 6-10 ounces in water has to be eliminated in 
addition to the 75 per cent, of water in the first instance. 

Mr. Borden told me that the matter of getting the right propor- 
tion of sugar was the result of long study and numerous experi- 
ments and no other proportion gave such good results in the pro- 
duct. The plain condensed milk is reduced from 4 to 1. It is 
treated in the pan precisely like the other except near the close of 
the operation, when the vacuum in the pan is broken and the mass 
super-heated or raised to a temperature of 190"^ to 200'^. The super- 
heating process was discovered in 1862, and this is one reason which 
gives the Borden brands their superiority in the market. The super- 
heating not only helps its keeping qualities, but prevents granula- 
tion. During the super-heating process, the water which passes off 
has an intensely disagreeable odor. The heat in the vacuum-pan 
throughout the whole of the Borden process, apart from super-heat- 
ing, is kept at a temperature of from 135*^ to 145'^' Fahr. 



79 

At the Brewster factory they have a tilling machine by which two 
women will lill 10,000 j^ouncl cans per day, of ten hours. In the old 
way the two would till but 3000 cans in ten hours. Two women 
will put the labels on 10,000 cans in a day, and one woman will seal 
or solder up 1200 cans per day. The machinery for making cans 
liere is very complete, li boys at tops and bodies, and soldering on 
machines, with one man cutting bodies, will make 11,000 cans per 
day ; the expense being about 2 3-4 cents per can for labor and ma- 
terial all told. This factory sends about 50 forty quart cans of Plain 
Condensed Milk to New York daily, which is sold at from 40 to 50 
cents per quart. The (piestion may occur, why is the milk heat- 
ed in the bath and then in the wells ? and why not heat all in one 
place? Mr. Borden says milk cannot be heated to the boiling point 
in one vessel, except at great loss from adhesion to the metal, and 
besides causing great trouble in cleansing. The heating in two places 
avoids this. At this factory they have a " can washing macliine,''' 
which does the work in a moment by machinery. 

Mr. Borden in describing liis process to me, said, (and I give his 
exact language,) as follows : — "The milk is brought up to 150'^ to ITS'-? 
in the bath, then poured into the heating well where it is brought 
to a boiling heat and from tlfence drawn into the pan by atmospheric 
pressure, by the air pumps. The sugar is dissolved with a portion 
of the boiling milk taken from the heating well. The making of 
a good article of milk depends not so much upon the formula in the 
best specification, as ui)on the condition of the milk when hrought to 
the factory, and the care and attention given to every part of the 
process, from the washing of the vessels and the thorough cleanli- 
ness which should be observed in every department. The success 
of the milk manufactured at our three factories, known as the ' Gail 
Borden Eagle Brand,' is due to the attention which we give to the 
l^ersonal inspection of every department of the dairies on the farms, 
whicii is assigned to one person at each factory ; the constant exam- 
ination of every man's milk by samples taken and subjected to tests 
as to cream, sweetness and the time it will keep after being brought 
from the dairies. 

In short there is nothing manufactured requiring so much ci'.re 
and everlastino- vigilance and attention as that of milk. From the 
time it is drawn from the cow, until hermetically sealed in cans, it 
requires that everything should be done with the utmost integrity. 

I am assured from what I see in your writings on the subject of 



80 

milk as applied to the miking of batter and cheese, that you t'lilly 
concur in all 1 have said in relation to this subject. We both real- 
ize that it is for want of a full understanding of the delicate charac- 
ter of milk, that so many have failed in producing a good article 
either of cheese or condensed milk," 

After condensing the milk and drawing from the vacuum pan, 
the pan must be thoronghly cleaned. For this purpose there is a 
man-hole by which a person can enter the pan and do the work with 
brushes, sand paper and water, I am told that Mr. Borden for a 
long time experienced considerable difficulty in having the pans 
properly cleaned, as the milk during the process of condensing would 
adhere to the metal, and bake or harden into a crust. After a while 
it was discovered that by oiling the metal on the innor surface of 
the pan this difficulty cDuld be obviated. 

The discovery was mide through m^rel}- accidental circumstances 
and from observing an old housewife gre:is3 the pot preparatory to 
making " minute pudding." 0;i applying the principle to the 
vacuum pan, it was found to prevent the milk adhering to the metal, 
and a patent was at once secure! upon it. This is one of the se- 
crets of the condensing business. Mr. Borden informs me that by 
having water in the pan before drawing on the milk the same ob- 
ject is effected as by greasing the pan, 

GAUGING THE MILK. 

Difficulty is sometimes had in determining whgn the milk has been 
reduced to the proper consistency. In regulating this, samples of 
condensed milk are drawn from the pan, and from its appearance on 
cooling, the amount of water eliminated is judged. Errors not un- 
frequently occur in carrying the condensing process too far, especially 
with persons who have not a correct eye, or who may become a 
little careless at times. 

1 am told that a gauge placed in the pan is an important aid in 
this matter. The quantity of milk when it enters the pan being 
noted, the gange indicates the amount and rapidity of the evapora- 
tion, and thus renders great assistance in regulating this important 
point in the process. For it must be observed, if the reduction is 
carried beyond 75 per cent, there is not only a loss in weight, but 
the consistency not being uniform will have its influence on sales, 
besides the quality is liable to be deteriorated. 



81 



PI,AIN CONDENSED MILK. 



The plain condensed milk has the same amount of water elimi- 
nated and is treated in the same way as that which has been de- 
scribed, except that no sugar is used in its manufacture. It is not 
put up in sealed cans, but will keep sound for several days, and is 
intended for present use. It is sent to market in cans holding 40 
quarts each. 

Recently a " non conducting can" has been invented for shipping 
this kind of milk. It is of tin and nearly the same form as the car- 
rying cans, but double, with a space of two inches between the outer 
and inner surface, which is clos»ly packed with ground felt. In these 
cans the milk goes to market in sound condition. 

THE COMBINED FACTORY. 

I have alluded to the modern plan of combining with the manu- 
facture of condensed milk, that of cheese and butter. In other words, 
the fitting up of a factory in which either one or the other or the 
whole three products can be made from the daily delivery of the 
jnilk. Experience has shown that the combined factory is the safest 
and in most cases should be adopted. There will be certain seasons 
of the year when it will be more difficult to make good condensed 
milk than at others. There are times, too, when the milk received 
does not prove to be in that prime condition that would be advisable 
for condensing, but which might suffice for the manufacture of cheese. 
Again, the breakage of machinery might render it impossible to con- 
dense the milk for a day and perhaps for longer periods. Changes 
in the market also may possibly render it advisable to run a smaller 
quantity of milk through the condensing process, for a day, a week 
or a month, than at other times. These, and a variety of other cir- 
cumstances occuring or liable to occur, demand that ample means be 
had at the factory for manufacturing the milk into some other form 
than that of condensed milk. For it must be observed that after a 
number of persons have been engaged to deliver milk at the factory, it 
must be received, it in good condition, and unless provision be made for 
its manufacture, insomeform,heavy losses will entail. Where arrange- 
ments are perfected for turning the milk into butter or cheese, or 
condensing it at pleasure, advantage may be taken of any unfavor- 
able circumstance, and the milk is properly disposed of without loss. 
There are other reasons for the construction of factories on this plan, 

K 



82 

which I shall name hereafter under their appropriate headings. The 
factory plans here referred to are those of the Middletown factory on 
the Erie Kailway, about 60 miles from New York City. This es- 
tablishment was erected during the year 1870, at a cost of moretlian 
$50,000, and is probably the most convenient and best furnished in 
its internal fittings of any condensing factory in America, The 
lower story or basement is partly below the surface of the ground. 
The basement rooms are about nine or ten feet between floors, and 
the lower floor being about six feet below the level of the ground, 
built in with heavy walls and thoroughly underdrained, gives a low, 
even temperature the year round. The floor is covered with stone 
flagging, nicely laid in cement, so as to make a perfectly tiglit bot- 
tom, and where no accumulation of water or tilth can find an en- 
trance. And it may be observed here that all condensing factories 
should have basemsnts similarly constructed, since by securing alow 
and uniform temperature, the milk can be kept in better order and 
a better product be secured. The main building is -iOxCS feet, three 
stories, with wings 22x22 feet on the left, and 22x50 feet on the 
right and two stories high. The basement is divided into churn and 
butter room to the left, 22x22 feet, vat room 40x68 feet, containing 
the cooling vats, cheese vat, elevator, presses, &c., with steam pipes 
and hose leading to various parts of the building. The room to the 
right is the pump and wash room 22x22 feet with scalding and cold 
water vats, vacuum pumps, &c., &c., and containing the lower por- 
tion of the vacuum pan, projecting through the ceiling from above. 
Out of this and along the side of the main l)uilding is the boiler and 
engine room. The boiler is of 60 horse power. On the second 
floor of the main building is the delivery room 40x68 feet. Here 
are the heating tanks of galvanized iron or of tin with jacketed bot- 
tom of copper, in which steam is admitted to heat the milk. They 
are each four feet in diameter and about six feet long, rising about 
eighteen inches above the floor, and extending through the floor and 
into the room below. They have a capacity of holding about iOO 
gallons each. Between each two tanks there is a ventilator com- 
municating with tlie room below and running to the roof. Open- 
ings are provided in each rot^m so as to give thorough ventilation. 
A track for milk-car runs from the delivery window along side ot 
the tanks, and extends to the elevator, so that as fast as the milk is 
delivered, the cans are placed on the car and thus conveyed to the 
tanks and dumped, or the milk may be placed on the elevator and 



83 

lowered to the room below. This room is double floored,— the iioors 
laid in cement, so as not to allow leakage. On the left is the office 
22x22 feet, provided with desks, &c. On the right is the vacuum 
room 22x22, with vacuum pan in the centre, the lower part of the 
pan extending through the floor and into the room below, where the 
condensed milk is drawn from the pan. The communication be- 
tween the rooms is by stairs Here also is the condenser and pump- 
ing machinery. Back of the vacuum room is the canning depart- 
ment where the milk may be drawn from the filling cans into 
pound packages and then sealed and labeled. The third or upper 
floor is the cheese curing department, provided with racks or tables 
for the reception of the cheese. 

-Near the ceiling of the basement are iron shafts connected with 
gearing to the engine by which the churns are driven, the elevator 
raised or lowered at will, and all other work requiring power trans- 
mitted. Cold spring water flows in and out of the cooling vats and 
other water tanks, while steam is conveyed by pipes from the boiler 
to the heating tanks, and to other parts of the building as desired. 
The whole structure above the basement walls is of brick and the 
boiler chimney, 126 feet high, is very substantially laid. Of course, 
a factory embracing the same ground plan could be erected much 
cheaper, as everything connected with the building and fixtures has 
been made upon the most expensive scale. 

CONDENSING SKIMMP:D >[ILK. 

Plain condensed milk is varied in manufacture : 

I. By using " whole milk," or milk containing all its own cream. 

II. By mixing skimmed with whole milk, and when this is done 
the skimmed milk is first drawn into the vacuum pan, and after its 
volume is reduced considerably, tlie whole milk is added and the 
mixture then reduced to the required consistency. 

III. By condensing the skimmed milk ahme. 

TKEATMENT OF THE MILK. 

At the Middletown factory skimmed milk is extensively used for 
condensing. After the milk is taken from the delivery window and 
dumped into the heating tanks, steam is admitted to the jacketed 
bottom and the milk heated to 130*^. A small (juantity of alum 
and saltpetre is sometimes added to the milk, for the purpose of 
more readily clarifying it. During the heating process the impuri- 



84 

ties in the milk rise to the surface and are skimmed off, and when 
this is eft'ected (the time of heating ranging from one and a half to 
two hours) the milk is ready to be drawn either into the vacuum 
pan or cooling pails. These pails are eight inches in diameter by 
twenty-two inches long, with iron bails, and are set in the vats con- 
taining cold spring water. The vats are placed in the basement as 
before described, and the pails of milk are constantly surrounded 
with flowing spring water. The pails are filled by attaching a rub- 
ber hose to the bottom of the heating tank, where there is a faucet 
with tube going through the jacket to the milk. The operator then 
carries the hose from one pail to the other and they are thus rapidly 
filled- 

The cooling vats, four in number, are each tw^enty one feet long 
by four feet wide, made of three inch pine plank and separated 
into three divisions. Here the milk sets from eight to twelve hours, 
according to the character of product which it is desired to make. 
After the cream is taken off, the milk may be drawn at once into 
the vacuum pan, simply by running a rubber hose from the milk 
to the pan, as the pressure on account of the vacuum in the pan is 
sufficient to draw the milk through the pipes. During the process 
ol condensing, the temperature of the milk in the pan is kept at 
about 135'^, a vacuum of 22 to 25 inches being maintained. The 
milk having been reduced to its proper consistency is drawn from 
the vacuum pan into the cooling pails, which are immediately 
plunged into the vats containing cold spring water. The pails are 
about half full, and the average temperature of the water is 52'^ 
Fahr. When thoroughly cooled it is ready to go into the non-con- 
ducting shipping cans to be transported to market. The condensed 
skimmed milk brings 25 cents per quart. Under this process, in 
the month of July, when the daily delivery of milk was betvi^een 
live and six thousand quarts, eight quarts of milk yielded one quart 
of cream, and the whole quantity of cream made 400 pounds of 
butter per day. When whole milk and skim milk are used together 
for condensing, the evening's milk having been strained and placed 
in the small tin cooling pails, they then go to the water pools or 
tanks and are surrounded with flowing spring water on the same 
plan as at the butter factories. Here the milk sets until morning, 
when the pails are taken out, the cream dipped off' and the skim- 
med milk immediately drawn into the vacuum pan. In a vacuum 



85 

of about 24 the niilk will begin to boil when the mercui'3' indicates 
100° Fahr. The heat soon rises to 136'^ or 140° and is allowed to 
go no farther. The morning's milk as fast it is delivered goes to 
the pools in the same way as the night's milk, and after the milk in 
the vacuum pan has been somewhat reduced in volume, the morn- 
ing's mess is taken from the ])ools and is drawn into the pan and 
the mixture then reduced. By this process a good product of plain 
condensed milk, it is said, can be made ; while for sugared milk some, 
operators think a more nniform product, or the " smoothest milk," 
is made from milk that has had about half its cream removed before 
going to the pan. One of the leading difficulties in the condensing 
process, is to carry the milk along and draw it from the pan, before 
it is in a condition to granulate in cooking. It should be " smooth " 
and not gritty under the tongue, the latter state arising from the 
sugar-of-milk assuming a granulated form. When milk is treated 
in this way no saltpetre is added, or indeed any other chemical. 
The nse of such substances to clarify the milk is believed to be of 
doubtful expediency, since it is always better to have the milk in 
such good order, that these clarifying aids may be dispensed with. 
Tender this latter plan butter factories have been successfully 
turned into condensing factories at small cost ; since a copper vacuum 
pan 4 feet in diameter with all the fixtures complete may be had for 
$1,500, and a single vacuum pump of sni table size for the pan, $800, 
or a duplex pump, $1,000, making for the pan and pump either 
$2,300 or $2,500. 

RESULTS FROM TUE SKBLMED MILK I'ROCKSS. 

From the foregoing statistics it appears that 15 <|uarts of milk 
were requirad for one pound of butter, while a pound of butter was 
made on an average from less than two (juarts of cream. The butter 
in 1871 was marketed at 40 cents per pound, and the buttermilk at 
1 cent per quart ; 750 quarts of cream taken from the 0,000 quarts 
of milk wonld leave 5,250 ([uarts skimmed milk, and this eliminated 
of 75 per cent, of water makes 1,812 quarts of jilain condensed milk. 
Without taking any account of the buttermilk, the daily receipts 
may be very nearly estimated as follows : — 

400 pounds butter, 40c $l(i0.00 

1,813 quarts condensed skimmed milk, at '2')v i)eriju<irt 328.00 

From tliis we deduct cost of 80 gidlons'of crude milk allowed for 

waste, 12ic 10.00 

And we have a total of $478.00 



86 

The daily expenses on the basis of former estimates would be as 
follows : — 

6,000 quarts of milk, or 1,500 gallons, at 13ic pi-r gallon. |1B7.50 
Daily running expenses of factory 24.50 

Making |212.00 

Which leaves a daily balance above expenses of. ...... $266.00 

Perhaps it may be said that my estimate of factory buildings in 
the first instance, $2,500, is too low. This is a matter which cannot 
well be regulated here, but the other expenses, with additional esti- 
mates as referred to in the riote, $24.00, will give sufficient data for 
determining the profits to be derived from the business. 

Providing one-half of the skimmed milk be made into skimmed 
cheese, we should have as before : 

400 pounds butter, 40c $160 00 

656 quarts condensed milk, 25c i)er quart 164.00 

2,625 quarts milk, or say 525 pounds of skimmed cheese, at 10c. 52.50 

Making a total of $876.50 

Less 80 gallons for waste 10.00 

Leaving $866.50 

The daily expenses as before, 600 quarts milk, ;3^c $187.50 

Running expenses of factory 24.50 

Making total $212.00 

Leaving a daily balance above expenses when butter and 
cheese, and plain condensed (skim) milk are made, of.. $154.50 

It will be seen that the profits from the business must vary con- 
siderably according to the character of product manufactured, and 
under the combined factory plan here described, great latitude is 
given to vary the manufacture of the milk into such products, as 
shall seem most advisable from time to time. 

It may be observed in this connection, that when milk is set for 
cream during S to 12 hours onh^ and is then skimmed, the skimmed 
milk contains considerable butyraceous matter, and makes a good- 
tasting and palatable article of condensed milk ; since by varying 
the quantity of water for the purpose of returning it to its original 
consistency, or by using less water it can be made to assume the 
appearance of cream, while it contains more nutrition, bulk for bulk, 
than the milk in which all the cream is retained. For invalids or 
those in delicate health the skimmed milk is decidedly preferable, 
and is so recommended by physicians. 



87 

MARKETING. 

The question of markets aud marketing is perhaps the most serious 
of any concerning this business. I have given the prices at which 
the different kinds of condensed milk are sold. But can these prices 
be maintained, and is there a demand and a market for a large or 
indeed any considerable increase in these products ? These are grave 
questions and of serious import to those who are proposing to embark 
upon condensed milk manufacture. So far prices have been main- 
tained, and the Borden factories have met with abundant success. I 
do not hear of any complaint among consumers that prices are ex- 
orbitant, but, on the contrary, many affirm that condensed milk is 
cheaper than the milk-man's crude milk^ inasmuch as the latter is 
largely adulterated with water, is liable to sour on your hands, — be- 
sides from its frequent imperfections losses are entailed upon the 
consumer which amount to more, during the course of a year, than 
the difference in price between crude and condensed milk. 

City consumers who have become accustomed to the use of con- 
densed milk generally prefer it to the crude milk, as more uniform 
in quality", more convenient for use, more reliable in flavor, and more 
healthful as an article of food. But the class using condensed milk 
in America, as compared wuth that using crude milk is very small. 
Indeed, there are thousands of people who have never tasted, or 
even seen or heard of condensed milk. Doubtless if the public gen- 
erally could be made acquainted with the cleanliness required, and 
the freedom from impurities or adulterations in condensed milk, it 
would soon take the place of crude milk in all our leading towns 
and cities. Immense sums are now expended in carrying the crude 
milk to market, 75 per cent, of which would be at once saved if 
condensed milk could be made to take the place of crude milk. But 
should the water with which the milk-man dilutes his milk, be also 
taken into account, the saving on transportation would be much 
o-reater. Up to the present time, the condensing business has 
been in a few hands, and as little has been known generally con- 
cerning its manufacture or profits, prices have been controlled and 
maintained. Is it not to be feared that any large and sudden increase 
in condensing milk (especially before people have become somewhat 
educated as to its use and character) would have a tendency to glut 
the market, and thus prove disastrous to manufacturers^ 

With an increase of the business, there is little probability that 



88 

present prices can be maintained, and here the question occurs 
whether a considerable reduction in rates could not be made, and 
yet a fair profit be realized in the business. The price of crude milk 
in all our large cities will average nearly, if not quite, eight cents 
per quart. Say that one cent per quart be allowed the factory for 
manufacturing the plain condensed milk, nnd four cents per quart as 
the cost of crude milk at the factor}^ then there are three cents per 
quart which remain to be expended in transportation and delivering 
it to city consumers. Upon this basis, four quarts of crude milk 
reduced to one quart of condensed milk would be worth twenty 
cents at the factory. This would give a living profit to manufac- 
turers and to producers. 

And now the question occurs, how much is it worth to transport 
and market the quart of condensed milk? Call it four cents, and 
we have the quart of condensed milk in the hands of consumers at 
twenty-four cents, which is equivalent to crude milk at six cents 
per quart. But as the condensed milk is cleaner, purer, and will 
remain sweet and sound longer than the crude milk, the consumer 
realizes the boon long sought for in obtaining a cheap, nutritious 
and healthful food. 

In the higher and more philanthropic aspect of life, the cheapen- 
ing of food for the masses, and especially the poor, is a considera- 
tion not to be overlooked, and cannot be well over-estimated. 

Looking at this question of markets in all its relations, we should 
say that the safest plan to be adopted would be to establish com- 
bined factories, where the main business at first would be the manu- 
facture of butter or cheese, or both, entering upon condensed milk 
gradually, and making no more than could be marketed in the 
nearest cities and surrounding towns. 

I have no doubt that in every country village where crude milk 
is peddled, plain condensed milk could be readily introduced, and 
if an uniformly good article were furnished at reasonable rates, I 
am of the opinion that it would supplant, in a great measure, the 
crude milk. 

I cannot tell how long it may take to introduce this form of milk 
into general consumption. That must depend upon the activity and 
energy with which it is placed before the public. People are wedded 
to old usages, and do not readily change unless urged, or convinced 
of the advantages resulting from such change. But I am persuaded 
tiiat condensed milk, like other practical methods for improving the 



89 

comforts and healthfulness of mankind, must in the end be trium- 
phant. City consumers have for years endured the bad milk brought 
to their doors as a necessary nuisance, from which there was no 
ready way of escape. 

The new method opens the remedy for this difficulty, and as peo- 
ple become ac(|nainted with it we may reasonably suppose they will 
adopt it. 

CONCLUSION. 

In conclusion we may say that the condensing business requires 
considerable capital, great labor, unceasing care, and minute atten- 
tion to details, which paid workmen will neglect if not constantly 
watched. Mr. Borden thought he could get an extension of his 
patent if he tried, but he would not try. He preferred to rely on his 
skill and faithfulness in the manufacture in open competition. The 
product made at his factories has never been surpassed. In his 
early experiments scientific men told him that it was useless to 
think of retaining the (oil) cream, but he said it would not be milk 
then, only "skim milk," and so he kept on experimenting, and 
finally succeeded in retaining all the cream. To do this successfully 
under his process, the milk is brought to a temperature of 212"' 
Fahr. before it goes to the pan, as I have described in the early part 
of this paper. 

Some think that the condensing process must necessarily make 
slow progress, on account of the difficulty of getting skilled labor 
and the constant watchtulness required to make an unexceptionable 
article. Factories have Deen started from time to time and aban- 
doned on this account. But Mr. Borden has kept steadily on, and 
he has met with merited success, because he has never allowed a 
poor article to go upon the markets. And this should be a rule 
among all those who propose to enter upon its manufacture. 



AN ADDRESS 

DELrVERED BEFORE THE AMERICAN DAIRYMEn's ASSOCIATION, ON 

THURSDAY, JANUARY IIth, 1872, 

BY 

L. B. A.RIsrOLD, Esq., 

Of Ithaca, N. Y. 



POISON CHEESE. 



With the great expansion of the cheese interest in the United 
States and Canada, there has been a steady improvement in the 
quality produced, but tliere have also sprung up some other results 
not so desirable; among them is the occasional development of 
poison cheese, concerning which I liave been invited to speak 
to-day. 

The first case of poison cheese that I can recollect, which at- 
tracted the attention of the public or the notice of the press, oc- 
curred some fifteen or sixteen years ago. It appeared first in 
Philadelphia, and afterwards in New York City, and, I believe, 
some other places. The symptoms produced were very distressful, 
and indicated mineral poison, which it finally proved to be. It was 
easily distinguished from cheese not poison, by its containing black 
spots, which were traced to the white lead with which the cheese 
tubs and milk pails of the dairy were painted. The painting scaled 
and rubbed oft" into the milk or whey, and mingled with the curd, 
and by the agency of the lactic acid, developed in the curing of the 



01 

cheese, was converted into lactate of lead. The cause becoming 
known, it was at once removed by painting dairy utensils with zinc 
instead of lead. Since that time cases of poison cheese have occa- 
sionally made a wave of excitement in the public mind. Lately, 
since the introduction of the factory system, they have become 
more frequent. That they should now and then occur is not 
strange. Cheese, in its best estate, is poisonous to some people. 
Persons to whom cheese is so distasteful and poisonous that they 
cannot eat it at all, are often met with. I once knew a case of 
most distressful vomiting from a child's eating a bowl of bread and 
milk, in which had been accidentally droj)ped a piece of cheese 
about the size of a pea. The cheese was not eaten. The vomiting 
was produced from the influence of the cheese imparted to the milk 
as, upon examination, it was found in the bottom of the bowl. This 
poisonous action of cheese was not confined to this single instance. 
It had manifested itself before, and continued the same from child- 
hood to middle age, when the patient was lost trace of. 

I have heard of other cases about as striking as the one described. 
It was not the fault of the cheese, in the case related, that it be- 
came so obnoxious. Other members of the household ate of the 
same cheese with no unusual effect. One of the most singular facts 
in this case was, that while cheese was so offensive in taste, and 
poison in effect, milk, and even curd, were eaten with a good relish 
and with perfect impunity. As long as the curd remained such it 
was agreeable and harmless ; but the moment it became cheese it 
was distasteful and poisonous. It was therefore nothing in the 
milk, nor anything in the rennet that converted the milk into curd, 
that produced the peculiar result. It was evidently due to the 
chees}' fermentation in connection with a constitutional peculiarity 
of the individual. 

But the cases of poison cheese that are occurring now-adays are 
not just like the one described, for they occur with people who have 
been in the habit ot eating cheese without any bad effect. Cases of 
this kind are not peculiar to the present day ; they have occurred at 
intervals for fifty years or more, both in this country and Europe 
But they seem to be of more frequent occurrence recently than at 
any time before. They are peculiar in their nature, and have un- 
doubtedly one common cause. They are all alike in having no con- 
nection with any mineral poison. The most rigid analyses by dif- 
ferent chemists have invariably failed to find in them any evidence 



93 

or trace whatever of any mineral poison, thovigh those analyses 
have been many times repeated by able professors. The charac- 
teristics of the cheese, too, though not such as to attract much at- 
tention, are all similar and uniform in all the cases, no matter how 
widely scattered. It appears riper and richer than usual for its 
age, has a salvy and fatty appearance, and a strong flavor that is 
rather acid. Such are the common points of the descriptions so far 
as received. 

The symptoms are equally uniform. Pain in the stomach and 
nausea, and vomiting in moderate cases ; extreme distress and 
cramping in severe ones, followed with diarrhoea; death I'arely, and 
only in extraordinary cases. The symptoms generally appear 
within three hours, and are in most cases very intense. As a little 
five year old boy who was poisoned last summer in Batavia expressed 
it, they are " awful sick." It is a very singular fact, in most of the 
cases that have come to my knowledge, that though the poison is so 
very virulent in some stomachs, others can eat of the same cheese 
that is so poisonous to some, without any deleterious efiects, especial- 
ly after it has stood a few days with the cut surface exposed to tlie 
air. 

Cases of cheese-poisoning are becoming quite common, much 
more so than is generally supposed. Interested parties have pre- 
ferred to hush them up rather than publish them, for fear of the 
effect upon the consumption and price of cheese. But this is hardly 
a fair way of treating the matter. Better face the difficulty square- 
ly ; better take the beast by the horns, and master it if we can. 

The poison in cheese appears to be very variable in its efficacy. 
Besides affecting persons differently, cases may be observed of every 
conceivable shade of strength, from slightly nauseating to those 
that produce the extremest symptoms. It may be interesting to re- 
fer to some of the severer cases that have lately occurred. In St. 
Lawrence County, New York, a case occurred in October, 1869, 
that was noticed at the time by Mr. Willard in the Rural New 
Yorker. From the account there published it appears that the 
poisoned people traced the cheese, through the dealer who pur- 
chased it, back to the dairy, where nothing in the making, or about 
the dairy, was different from usual. All appeared cleanly, and 
everything done in the usual manner. 

"No deaths," he says, "came from eating the cheese, but the 
persons' who ate of it were taken suddenly ill with pains and cramps, 



9S 

and excessive vomiting, showing evident indications that tliey had 
been poisoned." Samples of this cheese were sent to Professor 
Jackson, of Boston, who, after a rigid examination, reported, as 
usual, no poison found in any of the samples, but appended the fol- 
lowing to his report: " But there is a small proportion of offensive 
putrifying animal matter, which has been separated here, that does 
not belong to good cheese."" Other facts appeared in the account of 
this cheese which would be interestino- to those who care to investi- 
gate this matter. A case appeared in Fairfield, Michigan, last May, 
the effects of which were more wide-spread and severe. T have no 
authentic account that any deaths occurred, but a large number of 
persons were made deathly sick. It was a very serious occurrence, 
and the most extensive of any that has come to my knowledge. 
All the cheese made in one of the three vats in a certain factory 
for three days, not always consecutive, proved to be poisonous. The 
cheese, when cured, was scattered about the State and out of the 
State, and spread the poison over a wide extent. Persons partaking 
of it were made sick in the same way as before described. The 
effects produced, as the proprietors of the factory related, were 
nausea, excessive and p)rotracted vomiting, most excruciating pains 
in the stomach and bowels, followed generally by diarrhoea. And 
yet, they say, though so many people were made so terribly sick 
from using this cheese, others partook of it with no unusual effect. 
A sample of this cheese was sent to Cornell University for Professor 
Caldwell to analyze. By his kindness a piece of it was presented 
to me for inspection. It presented no very unusual appearance. It 
was salvy and rich, and apparently more thoroughly cured than 
usual for a cheese of its age, being about two months old when I 
saw it. Though it had ripened rapidly, there was no appearance of 
hnlfing, being pretty compact, and exhibiting a few gas holes which 
were pretty large. It had the same strong, sourish smell that has 
been said to belong to other poison cheese, but it did not appear to 
be stronger, I thought, than I had seen in cheese not poison. After 
insj)ecting, I ate a piece the size of a hickory nut. It was followed 
with a little pain in the stomach and feeling of heaviness, as is com- 
mon in cases of indigestion, which soon passed away, followed by 
no other effect than offensive breath. The next day I ate more, 
with less effect ; and in a few days, the cheese being exposed to the 
<ar all the time, I could partake of il as well as any other cheese, 
except the unpleasant breath that followed every trial of using. It 



94 

was not used long enough to determine whether this peculiarity 
would also have died away or not. 

Professor Caldwell ate of the same, sparingly at lirst, with no 
noticeable effect ; but increasing the quantity gradually for a few 
days, vomiting followed, which at the time was thought to result 
from nothing but an ordinary case of indigestion, but inasmuch as 
this was one of the customary symptoms of that peculiar poison, I 
suspect it was due to the cheese. 

Last w^inter a pretty bad case broke out in the city of New York, 
the particulars of which I have not learned, except that a careful 
analysis by different chemists in the city failed to find any indica- 
tion of poison. 

Another serious case of the kind is said to have occurred at Ana- 
mosa, Iowa, by which a considerable number of persons suffered terri- 
bly with the same symptoms that followed the Michigan and other 
poison cheese. 

Five members of a family were, not long since, poisoned in Bata- 
via, ]^. Y., some very severely, others slightly. Symptoms as usual, 
distressful vomiting that lasted three hours. The appearance of the 
cheese was nothing difierent from usual except the strong odor be- 
fore mentioned, and also quite ripe and rich. It was highly colored, 
and said to be a Hamburg cheese. 

These instances are sufficient to show the general character of the 
cheese and its effects. They are some of the strongest cases that to 
my knowledge have transpired. The milder cases that are occur- 
ring more frequently about the country seldom attract attention, or 
are even suspected of having a poisonous character. But I find 
them quite often, especially in low situations, and I conclude that 
cheese buyers do also, for I notice that in trying cheese they seldom 
taste, because they soon find that tasting, to use a mild expression, 
does not agree with them ; and I have tasted enough to understand 
why. Similar cases have also occurred in Europe. Dr. Voeclker 
reports having analyzed several samples with no more satisfactory 
results than have been obtained in this country. Tlie description he 
gives of the cheese is the same as is given of poison cheese here. It 
is rich and fatty, and strong and acid, and its use is followed by the 
same results. The cause is evidently the same there as here, and 
chemical analyses there, as well as here, have settled one point pretty 
conclusively, viz : That it proceeds from no mineral or other poison 
that the chemist can reach. It is of some other character ; some- 



95 

thinoj tliat dissolves in his crucibles and eludes his search. What, 
then, can the cause be ? is a query that will very likely be raised in 
the mind of every hearer. But to that query I can only reply as 
Agassiz did, when he was asked if the human race had a plurality 
of origin : " I wish I knew.'' 

I propose now, for a short time, to call your attention to some of 
the circumstances that might be supposed to vary fermentation in 
cheese, that you may judge for yourselves whether there is any 
probability that the poison originates in that quarter. 

The subject of fermentation in connection with the dairy interest, 
is both interesting and important. Everything in cheese-making 
goes on by fermentation. By fermentation we curdle the milk and 
extract the whey ; fermentation ripens the curd in the vat ; and the 
conversion of that curd into cheese in the curing-room, w^hether it 
be palatable or unpalatable, wholesome or unwholesome, is the 
work of fermentation only. This subject was very clearly and ably 
presented to this Association two years ago, and by those who heard 
it is doubtless well remembered now. 

Every one present, it may be presumed, has a general idea of the 
nature of fermentation ; but I may remark in passing, that the 
changes it occasions are always accompanied with the growth and 
development of myriads of living microscopic fungus plants, and 
that their growth and multiplication are regarded as the cause of 
the changes produced, and that these microscopic plants, or rather 
the germs or spores from which they originate, take the general 
name o^ ferment ; so that when the terms ferment and fermenta- 
tion are used, you will refer them back in your mind's eye to the 
germs as the moving cause. 

I may further remark in regard to these fungus plants, that they 
are susceptible of great variation from changes in temj)erature, or 
from the composition of the substance in which they may grow. It 
is the same species of fungus, growing under different circum- 
stances, that raises our bread, makes alcohol, beer, vinegar, wine, 
and cheese. This fact has some significance in looking for the 
cause of poison cheese. If changes occur from a cliange of condi- 
tions, if the same germs by a change of circumstances can be made 
to produce wholesome cheese in one case, and alcohol in another, it 
will require no very great stretch of the imagination to suppose 
that they viight be so varied as to produce some other poison ; and 
it is possible, at least, that the poison in cheese may be thus oricyi- 



06 



' IIM Mill lllll Hill lllllllllllllll 11(11 lllll 1111111(11 I 

000 891 229 4 i 






VoO 






nated. The variations in cheese from temperature alone are very 
great. If two green cheeses from the same vat are placed to cure, 
one in a temperature of 70*^ and the other 50'=', the one may become 
a line, palatable cheese, the other bitter, offensive and unwholesome. 
But I must not stop to trace the changes further. I must turn to 
the examination of milk as the more probable cause of contamination, 
and from the crucibles of the chemist I appeal to the microscope to 
aid in the investigation. 

I have prepared here some illustrations to show how milk ap- 
pears, both in its natural and diseased condition, when viewed with 
the microscope, and also to show some of its natural, as well as un- 
natural, ferments, and how the latter get into it. 

Figure 1 is a greatly enlarged view 
of the cream globules as they appear in 
healthy milk. It was taken from the 
milk of a large number of cows mixed. 
I wish you to take notice of the great 
inequality in the size of the globules, as 
it is an evidence of its healthy condition. 
This inequality may be a little greater 
than is common, the sample being taken 
from the milk of a large number of cows 
mixed together. The globules in some cases are much larger than 
in others, but I have seen a difference even greater than this in the 
milk of a single cow. You will notice also how evenly they are 
distributed over the view. This is another evidence of healthful - 
ness. In healthy milk the globules are not only evenly distributed 
through the milk, but they are separate from each other, and move 
about in the watery mass in which they are suspended with as much 
freedom and mobility as the particles of the liquid in which they 

float. 

Figure 2 shows a sample of tainted 

milk, with the globules nearly all in clus- 
ters. This was caused by a little fever in 
the cow. When cows become feverish 
from any cause, as improper food or water, 
or exposure to too much hot sun, or by 
worrying with dogs or flies, their milk 
under the microscope takes on this ap- 
pearance. The cream globules change at 
once when fever occurs, and, probably from incipient decay, their 
surfaces become viscid and adhesive, and they stick together in 




mm^y ^^ CONGRESS 




ooooaTiea'^4 



Q 



